Jonas Yanthan
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he meaning and understanding of ‘Royalty’ is generally misunderstood in Nagaland. What it really means seems to be known to very few. General public and the government normally think that royalty belongs to the government or to someone other than land or resource owner who is authorized but this is not correct. Royalty on land and resources belongs to none other than owners of the resources and copyright royalty vested on Authors. To substantiate what I am saying let us elaborate what royalty is. The Word ‘Royalty’ comes from the word ‘Royal’. In all Monarchic Governments or Princely States, it is the King or Queen, the Royal, owns everything: land, resources etc and whoever performs revenue earning activities on land and resources under his or her kingdom pays a portion of interest called Royalty to the King or Queen. Thus ‘Royalty’ is defined as a “payment to an owner for the use of his/her p roperty or copyrighted works or natural resources.” Royalty payment is designed to compensate the owner for use of asset and is legally binding as well.Dictionary defines royalty as, “a compensation or portion of the proceeds paid to the owner of a right, as a patent or oil or mineral right, for the use of it; an agreed portion of the income from a work paid to its author, composer, owner etc., usually a percentage of the retail price of each copy sold; a royal right, as over minerals, granted by a sovereign (in the case of Nagaland, the land owners) to a person or corporation; the payment made for such a right.” By this universal understanding and explanation, whose royalty is the 33.86 Crore rupees that ONGC had paid? This entire amount belongs to the land owners of Champang and not to the State Government.
Much had been talked about on the royalty paid by ONGC to Nagaland Government. Out of this amount only a meager 2% of it had been paid to the Champang Oil Land Owners by the State Government as if the royalty amount belonged to it. The land owners ignorantly or innocently had bargained for at least 5% if not 20% of the total royalty money but were finally settled for 2 % equivalent to Rs. 76 lakhs only while the rest amount of 33.10 Crore rupees or so was taken by the State Government and as usual it disappeared into thin air. However, whether properly utilized or siphoned, the amount does not belong to the State Government but belongs to the Champang Oil owners in this case and hence the remaining full amount must be returned to its rightful owners immediately.
Nagaland Government is customarily not the land owner and hence only the legal guardian unlike in other States where both legal guardianship and ownership of land and resources is the government and therefore all royalties on land and resources, unless the State government had earlier purchased, belongs to the land owners and no one else. What belongs to the State government is only by way of taxes, fees and other charges for logistic support or services provided by the Government. Having said thus this information is not a mere personal opinion but logically reasoned and legally advised interpretation. Therefore it must be understood for all future references in regard to resources in Nagaland.
